Malcolm Turnbull — with the aid of Josh Frydenberg — finally got his party room to agree to a policy on both energy prices and greenhouse gas emissions on Tuesday — nine years after being toppled on climate policy by Tony Abbott.

The debate in the Coalition party room about the latest attempt to solve the climate wars was not just a victory for the Prime Minister but a sign of the former prime minister's waning influence with his colleagues.

Climate and energy policies have been central to the rise and fall of Mr Abbott's influence within the Coalition.

But he has hardly been consistent on the issue.

In 2009, he had first urged the Coalition to simply wave the Rudd government's emissions trading scheme through the Parliament. Then he changed his mind and adamantly opposed it.

His position on the reality of climate change has also famously varied.

In 2009, he said; "I think the science is far from settled, the fact that we've had if anything cooling global temperatures over the past decade … suggests the role of CO2 is not nearly as clear as the climate catastrophists suggest".

But as prime minister at the G20 in 2014 he said; "Australia has always believed that climate change is real, that humanity makes a contribution and that strong and effective action should be taken".

More colourfully, he once observed that "primitive people once killed goats to appease the volcano gods".

"We are much more sophisticated now but are still sacrificing poor industry and living standards to the climate gods to little effect."

Former Liberal leader John Hewson was once Mr Abbott's boss but he's now a prominent critic.

Mr Abbott's subsequent victory was huge, but it was brief. Though he managed to dismantle Labor's climate policies, he lost the leadership to Malcolm Turnbull in 2015.

He pledged then "there will be no wrecking, no undermining and no sniping. I've never leaked or backgrounded against anyone and I certainly won't start now. Our country deserves better than that".

But Mr Abbott has publicly goaded the Government over policies ever since, particularly on climate, attempting to set himself up as the leader of the many sceptics of climate change — or at least various climate policies — within the Coalition parties.

Labor environment spokesman Mark Butler said this week that it was Mr Abbott who had scuttled several of the Turnbull Government's previous attempts at climate policy, including so-called emissions intensity scheme and a clean energy target.

Support waning after relentless attacks

With emotions raw in the early days after the Turnbull ascension, Mr Abbott attracted considerable support from his colleagues and the suggestion that he might be able to make a comeback was never far away.

But the very relentlessness of his attacks on Government policy gradually saw the number of his colleagues who wanted to be aligned with him dwindle, no matter what their views of policy.

On Tuesday, only a handful of MPs and senators followed his lead and indicated they would cross the floor to vote against the legislation.

The Prime Minister hailed the move as representing one step closer to cheaper, and more reliable energy.

"We have got to bring an end to the years of ideology and idiocy which have been a curse on energy policy for too long," he told a Canberra press conference, repeating an answer he had given in Parliament on Monday when asked about Mr Abbott's policy position

Its success in the Parliament now really hinges on Labor waving the bill through the House of Representatives — leaving the spectre of just Tony Abbott and a handful of colleagues sitting with Greens MP Adam Bandt in opposition — and on to debate in the Senate.

Mr Butler was keeping Labor's options on the legislation completely open on Tuesday night, saying he would await signs that the states would do their part in setting up the so-called National Energy Guarantee.